With 617 million children and adolescents worldwide unable to read a simple sentence or handle a basic math calculation, the UNESCO Institute for Statistics (UIS) has embarked on an invitiative to link existing international, regional and national assessments to fill a critical data gap on learning during the early grades of education.

The recent edition of the SDG 4 Data Digest illustrates the range of partners working alongside the UNESCO Institute for Statistics (UIS) to help countries produce and use assessment data to strengthen lifelong learning.

The new edition of the SDG 4 Data Digest illustrates the range of partners working with the UNESCO Institute for Statistics (UIS) to help countries produce and use assessment data to strengthen lifelong learning.

More children than ever are in school, but are they receiving a quality education? According to the latest SDG 4 Data Digest by the UNESCO Institute for Statistics, about 617 million children and adolescents cannot read proficiently or do basic math, and two-thirds of them are sitting in a classroom. Are children gaining the skills they need for lifelong learning? The latest Digest presents how governments can measure learning outcomes using existing tools to produce internationally-comparable data. Data to change policies. Data to nurture learning.

The recent edition of the SDG 4 Data Digest illustrates the range of partners working alongside the UNESCO Institute for Statistics (UIS) to help countries produce and use assessment data to strengthen lifelong learning. This blog highlights one of these vital partners: the Offord Centre for Child Studies, and specifically Professor Magdalena Janus, who brought years of expertise to the Digest’s analysis on early childhood development (ECD). Here, Magdalena shares her thoughts on the critical importance of measuring early learning.

The new edition of the SDG 4 Data Digest illustrates the range of partners working with the UNESCO Institute for Statistics (UIS) to help countries produce and use assessment data to strengthen lifelong learning.

The new edition of the SDG 4 Data Digest illustrates the range of partners working alongside the UNESCO Institute for Statistics (UIS) to help countries produce and use assessment data to strengthen lifelong learning.

Globally 617 million – or six out of ten – children and adolescents are unable to read a simple sentence or handle a basic mathematics calculation, according to data from the UNESCO Institute for Statistics (UIS). To address the global learning crisis, robust monitoring is needed to track whether children and adults are gaining the skills they need to thrive in today’s world. This video presents the tools developed by the UIS to measure learning and how to use the data to improve learning outcomes.